I think this thread was started for entirely the wrong reasons by someone who apparently has never posted here before and probably won't be back. He can take his horses-laugh elsewhere. A few folks have managed to bring this around to a reasonable discussion, so I will add my two cents:

When I was a ranger in Brooklyn at Prospect Park, they had a zoo. Small, but popular with the neighborhood folks. Ted and Lucy were polar bears who had a moat and walls and rocks and iron fences to keep them in and people out, but nonetheless, a couple of years after I left that park a boy managed to climb in, and Lucy killed him. I think he was 12--clearly old enough to know he was doing something wrong. It was heartbreaking that he was killed, but he had to work really hard to get in that far. What was the city response? Destroy the bears.*

This kid at Six Flags was even older, and he saw the danger signs. It's horrible that he was killed for the sake of retrieving an object as replaceable as a hat. Mourn not only the loss of this youth, but look with incredulity at the value system that said a hat was worth risking his life.

A few months ago I had a conversation with my 16-year-old about a friend who was robbed at a gas station, and ran around the building in pursuit. Someone hiding back there hit him so hard he was knocked unconscious for four hours. He finally came to on his own and staggered into the store. He'd been out of the range of the cameras, both his car and his body, for all that time. We argued about how stupid it would be, if it should happen to him, to chase those guys, and my son protested "but it's my stuff!"

This was a topic of discussion here this evening. I compared the stupidity of going after the hat with the stupidity of going after muggers, or putting up a fight for something so inconsequential as a cell phone or wallet. Stuff can be replaced, if it is important enough.

There is a conundrum here: My kids lose lots of things, especially things that were important and hard to replace. They don't seem to notice or care, they feel ENTITLED to have these things so expect them to be replaced if they go missing. I don't like it the way kids (not just my kids) today seem to not understand the value of a dollar and lose things right and left, but I also don't like the undue importance placed on things. Where is the middle ground--to have a few things and take good care of them, but not loose all perspective if something like a burglary happens, or the hat flies off one's head?

SRS

*Personally, I think it was as senseless to kill the bears as it would be to dismantle the roller coaster this youth was killed by. They could take "revenge" on animals, but they won't discomfit stockholders who own their share of the theme park.